Students were protesting the presence of police in universities when officers used chemicals and flash bangs inside a building. They violently detained some students and beat other students gathered outside another building.
One of the students came out of the emergency room with two stitches in the head, due to a stun grenade thrown by police officers at point blank range. A computer science student complained that while he was going to class, men dressed in black stopped him, asking him for his identity documents and student pass. They pushed him against the wall and asked him why he was there. In a video, the riot police team supervisor is shown cursing his colleagues, calling on them to retreat.
For more details, see: 1, 2, 3.
The Manifold is compiling a file of allegations of excessive police violence. Check it out here.
The right to assembly is enshrined in both the Greek Constitution (Article 11) and the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 11). Although the police have the legal authority to attend public gatherings and to disperse them for specific reasons such as a threat to public order, the measures they take must be proportionate. The indiscriminate use of violent means that threaten the life or physical integrity of citizens is illegal in a state that adheres to the rule of law.
In addition, the ability of police officers to use violence is governed by the same guarantees as in any other case, as reflected in the Code of Criminal Procedure (Article 256), Presidential Decree 141/1991 (Article 120), Presidential Decree 254/2004 (Code of Police Ethics) and in the 2005 Circular issued by the Headquarters of the Hellenic Police Force.
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